from aunt nan’s pearls mary kept out a brooch for her mother and two bar-pins for herself and katy summers, just alike. the rest of the “gems from shakespeare” she entrusted to mr. wilde, the family lawyer, who undertook to sell them for her in the city.
it was an exciting day for mary when he told her the result of his mission.
“my dear,” said he, with a twinkle in his wise old eyes, “those shakespeare ‘gems’ of yours made the eyes of the jewelers pop out of their heads. you won’t have any trouble in going to college when the time comes; if you still wish to do so, and if you haven’t already learned all there is to be known from that famous library of yours. i hold forty thousand dollars in trust for you. are you disappointed?”
“forty thousand dollars!” mary could only gasp. and the rest of the family had to pinch themselves to be sure they were not dreaming. but it was, indeed, a fact. there need be no more anxiety or overwork for any of them. with care and economy they were provided[100] for until mary and john should have finished college and be ready to earn their living. dr. corliss could go on writing his book in peace, without worrying about bills. mrs. corliss could have a little maid to help her in the housework.
and mary could have a party!
“mother,” said mary, when they had recovered from the first excitement of the news which mr. wilde had brought them, and when they had seen that proud and delighted old gentleman off once more for the city where he lived,—“mother, i want to have a party, and give the other children a good time. i want to celebrate not only our good luck, but the way we got it. i want to have a shakespeare party.”
“oh, yes! let’s have a party!” crowed john. “a dress-up party, mary?”
“yes, a dress-up party. everybody must be a shakespeare character.”
“i think that is a very nice idea,” said mrs. corliss. “next month comes shakespeare’s birthday, the twenty-third of april, which is also saint george’s day. i think it would be lovely to have a party and show our crowfield friends that aunt nan’s house is going to be hospitable and jolly from this time on.”
they invited all the children in mary’s class[101] of the high school and in john’s class of the grammar school. everybody was told that he or she must come in a shakespeare costume; and this set them all to looking up quotations and reading plays more than had ever before been done in crowfield.
for days before the party mary’s library was crowded every afternoon with eager children who came to ask questions and get suggestions about their costumes. mary and katy summers helped them as best they could, and mrs. corliss pinned and draped and made sketches to show how things ought to look.
during these busy days caliban retreated to the attic and sulked most of the time, because mary paid him so little attention. but then, mary said his costume was already nearly perfect. so why bother about him?
they held the party in the library, the biggest room in the corliss house. and aunt nan’s portrait looked down on a strange gathering of folk out of her favorite books. it seemed as if the old lady must be pleased if she knew how many persons had become interested in shakespeare through the things which had happened and were still happening in her library.
the door was opened by john dressed as[102] puck, in brown jacket and tights, with little wings sprouting out of his shoulder-blades.
in the library the guests were received by mary in long, glittering, green draperies to represent ariel, with a wand and a crown of stars. she kept caliban close at her side, beautiful in a green ribbon collar which bored him greatly.
katy summers stood beside mary, and looked sweet as titania, in a fairy dress of white tarlatan, with a crown of flowers. dr. corliss had been made to represent prospero, with a long white beard and gray robes. and mrs. corliss was one of the witches from “macbeth.” she wore a dress of smoky gray veiling, with a veil over her long hair, which concealed her face. some of the children were afraid of her at first, for they did not know who she really was; she looked very bent and witch-like, and acted her part weirdly.
ralph and james perry, two members of john’s “big four,” came as the two dromios, the clowns in “a comedy of errors.” their faces were whitened, and they acted like real clowns in a circus, turning somersaults and making grimaces. whatever one did the other imitated him immediately, and it kept the other children in gales of laughter.
[103]billy barton, the fourth member of the “big four,” made a hit as nick bottom, wearing the ass’s head, and braying with comical effect; though as billy had never heard the strange noise which a donkey really makes when it brays, he actually sounded more like a sick rooster. his long-eared head-piece soon grew so hot to wear that billy took it off and hung it over his arm, which rather spoiled the illusion, but was much more comfortable.
then there was charlie connors, a very fat boy, who dressed as falstaff, with a fierce mustache and impressive rubber boots, a plumed hat, belt full of pistols, and a sword. there was lady macbeth, in a white nightgown with her hair hanging loose, a dangerous dagger in one hand and a lighted candle in the other. but when she nearly set fire to the draperies of the ghost of hamlet’s father, mrs. corliss made the lady extinguish her sleep-walking candle.
hamlet himself was there, too, in melancholy long black stockings, with a waterproof cape flung tragically over one shoulder. he carried one of aunt nan’s ostrich eggs in his hand to represent a skull. indeed, the attic and the “collections” had helped supply many necessary parts of this shakespeare masquerade.
[104]there was cleopatra, in a wonderful red sateen robe hauled out of one of the old chests; and shylock, with a long beard hanging over a purple dressing-gown of the early-victorian period. there was julius cæsar in a roman toga made from some of aunt nan’s discarded window-curtains, and rosalind looking lovely in a blue bathing-suit and tam o’ shanter.
there were also a number of little grammar-school fairies in mosquito-netting robes, and many other citizens of places earthly and unearthly, who seemed to have wandered out of the books in mary’s library. ariel recognized them all, and named them to the company as they came in. they squatted about on the chairs and on the floor till everybody had arrived.
and then they gave the play.
ever since reading “midsummer night’s dream” mary had wanted to try the delicious foolery of “pyramus and thisbe.” it required no scenery, no other costumes than a shawl or two, to cover up what the actors were already wearing to represent other characters. it was all a huge joke, as the audience soon saw; and throughout the scene the children laughed and squealed with delight, as mary had thought they would. for the actors must have given the[105] play as ridiculously as shakespeare himself intended; which was saying a great deal.
billy barton, covering himself with a mackintosh, acted prologue, and introduced mary, draped as pyramus, and katy as thisbe; john, parted for a time from his wings, and tied up in a gray shawl, with a fringed rope fastened on for a tail, was the horribly roaring lion. ralph and jimmie represented wall and moonshine.
it was a very funny thing to see wall hold up his fingers to make a chink through which pyramus and thisbe might kiss each other. and when lion begged the audience not to be frightened by his roar, the children shrieked with laughter.
but funniest of all was when jimmy perry as moonshine came in with the old tin lantern to represent the moon, and tried to make caliban in his green ribbon act the part of the moon man’s dog. caliban didn’t like theatricals. he would not act the part, but lay down in the middle of the floor, with his feet in the air, and his ears laid flat, ready to scratch the moon man if he persisted. the prologue had to rush in again and drag him off.
when the lion had roared and made pyramus think he had eaten poor thisbe, so that the hasty fellow stabbed himself in grief; and when[106] thisbe had died, too, after sobbing about her lover’s “lily lips” and “cherry nose,” the little play was over, and everybody in a good humor. and the children said, “i didn’t know shakespeare was so funny, did you?”
then ariel and titania, prospero, and the witch made a magic—they were a mighty quartet, you see. john suggested that they were really the “biggest four.” they waved their wands and lifted their hands, and caliban helped with a mighty “wow!” then in came puck and the other fairies bearing a huge iron kettle, with a ladle sticking out of the top. from the kettle rose a cloud of smoke and a sweet smell that made caliban sneeze. the fairies put the kettle in the middle of the room, and the four magicians waved their wands over it, and moved slowly about it singing,—
“double, double, toil and trouble,
fire, burn, and cauldron, bubble!”
when the spell was finished, the smoke died away, and the witch stooped over and ladled something out, which she threw into the fireplace. “now, come, everybody!” she cried in a cracked voice, “and dip pot-luck out of the magic kettle.”
[107]one by one the guests came and helped themselves to a ladleful of pot-luck. the “luck” turned out to be a tissue-paper package tied with red ribbon. in each package was a little present. sometimes the children did not get an appropriate gift; but then they could “swap.” shylock, who was one of the biggest boys, drew a japanese doll, which he exchanged for a jack-knife that had fallen to the lot of a little girl-fairy. cleopatra drew a conductor’s whistle, and hamlet had a beautiful bow of pink hair-ribbon; so they made a trade. the ghost was made happy with a jews-harp, and the ass secured a fan; while fat falstaff made every one roar with laughter by unrolling from the great bundle of tissue paper, which he had carefully picked out, a tiny thimble.
after this they danced and played games, and made the roof of aunt nan’s old house echo with such sounds as it had not heard for many years. shakespeare characters flitted from room to room, up the stairs to the attic and down to the cellar, in a joyous game of hide-and-seek. and nobody said “don’t!” or “careful!” or “sh!” this was a night when dream-people had their way undisturbed.
then they all went out into the dining-room[108] and had supper—sandwiches and chocolate and cake and ice-cream. and they all voted that they liked shakespeare very much, and that they ought to celebrate his birthday every year.
nobody wanted to go home, of course. but in time, mere ordinary fathers and mothers and big sisters and big brothers, in ugly, common clothes, came and dragged away the shakespeare people, one by one. when they had all, as prospero said, “melted into air, into thin air,” when even titania had waved her wand and disappeared with a kiss on ariel’s cheek, this happy spirit and prospero and the witch, puck and caliban, were left alone in front of the library fireplace.
“wasn’t it a lovely party!” cried puck.
“i am sure aunt nan would have been pleased,” said the witch, looking up at the portrait over the mantel.
“just think what a happy time she has given us; dear aunt nan!” said ariel.
“yes; it was a very nice party, indeed,” acknowledged prospero, stroking his long beard gravely. “i confess i never expected to get so much pleasure out of poetry. but now, to quote myself, ‘i’ll to my book.’ good-night.” and he retired to his study.
“i’m so sleepy!” said john. “isn’t it too[109] bad that poor shakespeare died before they invented ice-cream?”
“yes,” said mary, “i wish he were still alive. i should like to see him. but when i look about the library now i feel as if all the books were alive—just full of live people!”
“they are alive so long as we read them,” said mrs. corliss.
“i’m going to keep them alive!” cried mary.
“miaou!” protested caliban, scratching wearily at his ribbon. he at least was tired of wearing his costume.
“poor caliban!” said mary, untying the ribbon. “now you can go to sleep comfortably. to-morrow i shan’t be ariel any more. but you will still be caliban, for you are the realest of us all!”
caliban switched his tail, yawned, and jumped up into the armchair, where he curled himself to sleep.
mary had a strange dream that night. perhaps she had eaten too much ice-cream. she thought that as soon as the house was quiet, caliban rose on tiptoe and put on little wings like those of puck, and flew right out of the open window, away to the land of fairies and shadows and book-folk. she dreamed that though[110] she hunted and hunted, she never could find him again. the dream made her cry, and she woke up very early in the morning, still sobbing.
the dream was still too real! she jumped out of bed, flung on her little blue wrapper, thrust her feet into her blue slippers, and hurried downstairs into the library. there in the middle of the mantelpiece, under aunt nan’s portrait and close beside the bust of shakespeare, sat caliban. he blinked in grave surprise at her unexpected entrance.
“oh, caliban, dear caliban!” cried mary, running up to him and hugging him tight. “i was afraid you had ‘vanished into thin air,’ too. i couldn’t have borne that, caliban. i don’t know what i should ever do without you, pussy dear!”
“miaou!” said caliban, fondly kissing her cheek.
and aunt nan’s portrait smiled down upon the pair.
